Too Beautiful
by scotchandsoda
Summary: 'She was going to leave.' The thought flashed through her mind and it shocked her. 'Where would she go' It didn't matter; she wanted to go away from all the pain. H/P Friendship. Contains abuse.
1. Chapter One

**Too Beautiful. **

_Warning:_ this chapter contains violence and abuse of a man hitting a woman he supposedly loves.

_**What kind of men lays his hand on the woman he loves, **_

_**calls her angel and shows no remorse,**_

_**and the blood**_

_**he covers her body in bruises and scars.**_

_**You don't understand just how beautiful you are.**_

Emily Prentiss opens her apartment door and throws her keys on the hallway table. She drags her weekend bag a little further but drops is just as quickly as the keys when she starts to feel her muscles burn worse. The team just got back from Missouri after a weeklong during case and Emily felt exhausted, all she wanted was to take a long both and then curl up in bed with her boyfriend. That is, if he wasn't having one his moods.

"Rick?" She calls out, walking into the living room where she expects him to be. But it was empty. "Rick?" she calls out again, making her way to the kitchen now. That's where she sees him, leaning against the counter and staring out of the window. His posture seemed tense; he was indeed having one of his moods. "Hey," Emily whispers, hoping to calm him down a little.

He turns away from the window and looks at her, the anger clearly evident in his eyes.

"My angel." He makes an attempt on a smile, "You didn't call yesterday." Emily cringes; she hates it when he smiles at her like that.

"We got a breakthrough in the case" she tries to explain. "We searched for our unsub all day, I couldn't find time to call. I'm sorry."

Emily saw Rick clench his fists. "You could've called this morning" he says, raising his voice.

"I'm sorry, Rick." She tried to smile. "We left early and I was really tired, I should've called."

"Yes," his voice went harsher "you should have." He closed in on her until he was just in front of her, his eyes lighting dangerously. "But you didn't." He raises his hands and Emily ducks, her eyes widening.

She dodges his hand on the last second. "Rick" she whispers in a warning tone. "You're doing it again." She'd promised to warn him when he got angry again, when he didn't seem to be in control of himself anymore. But his eyes stayed angry and her words didn't seem to get through to him. He stepped closer to her again and she backed away, trying to stand up. But before she knew what was happening his hand had connected with her face and she went crashing to the floor again. "Shit," she yelled. "Rick, stop it." But her words didn't matter anymore and neither did her pleading looks. She watched his hands closely to not miss another move, but doing so while trying to stand up with a dizzy head turned out to be quit the challenge.

Rick moved one hand to her face but Emily saw it coming, what she didn't saw though was his other fist. He slammed it into her stomach and Emily cringed in pain. "Rick," she whispered in a last try, "please." But she knew it wouldn't help, and it killed her. She loved the man in front of her, she couldn't help it. He'd been the sweetest man on the planet when they'd just started dating, and the more time she spend with him the deeper she fell. It wasn't like anything she'd felt before. She dodged another one of his hands but knew she couldn't keep this up forever. Rick was a large and strong man and though Emily knew how to defend herself, she also knew she had no chance against him.

_**You are too beautiful,**_

_**your heart, it wants something more.**_

_**Those shades of blue on that face of yours**_

_**hide the smile that beats in your chest. **_

For every hit she dodged she got hit twice as hard in return and after a few minutes she already felt herself slipping away, tears uncontrollably sliding down her face.

_She was going to leave. _The thought flashed through her mind and it shocked her. _Where would she go? _It didn't matter; she wanted to go away from all the pain. The beating had never before been this bad; always in a way that wouldn't be noticed to anyone else. And as much as she loved Rick, she wasn't going to let herself stay in this situation. She wasn't going to accept all this pain, she needed something more. Her heart needed something more; it needed love and a connection to another heart. She didn't accept all the beating and screaming, no woman should ever accept that.

And despite all the beating, she felt like smiling. A smile inside, hidden by bruises and scars. Things were going to change from now on, and she was going to make it happen.

_**When he's done with her beating **_

_**he just steps aside,**_

_**wipes the sweat from his brow and yells over her cries.**_

'_**you don't know what I've been through,'**_

_**he yells and he says**_

'_**you don't know what I've done for you.'**_

_**And he hits her again.**_

Emily feels the beating slow down and eventually stop. She feels weak and with difficulty she makes herself smaller, carefully opening one eye. She's lucky; it still will. But feeling the pain in her other eye, she knows that one will swell.

Rick is hovering above her; one hand ready to hit again and the other hand wiping little drops of sweat from his brow. Her mind tells her to move away while she still can but her body protest heavily, not being able to move even the slightest bit. She still wants to leave, that's still her plan, the only thing she missed while coming up with that plan was the fact that that meant she actually needed to move.

She tried to ignore her former boyfriends yelling, the sound hurting in her head. _How was she going to drive with a concussion?_ Who cared, as long as she would get away? She carefully tried to move, but pain ripped through her entire body. It was painful, but she could take it. Just like she could take everything else.

"Do you know what I've been through?" Emily heard Ricks rough whisper. "No, no you don't."It didn't matter how he whispered. Everything coming out of his mouth sounded too loud, too harsh. It still hurt too much.

"You don't understand what I've done for you." The hand he'd had ready to hit, the hand that had lowered just a little during his yelling, it was the hand he raised again. "You don't know anything." It was the hand that collided with her face, again and again and again…

_**And she stands in the mirror**_

_**she looks less alive,**_

_**she lifts up her shirt to see she has five **_

_**branded fingers on her side.**_

_**She's feeling it all now**_

_**but she doesn't cry,**_

_**she doesn't cry.**_

She takes a final look around her room, her bag all packed beside her.

The beating had finally stopped and Rick had stormed out of the room, leaving her unconscious on the floor. She wished he'd been drunk, that way she would at least have an explanation for the pain he'd inflicted on her, but he hadn't had one sip of alcohol and she didn't have her explanation. She'd been on the verge of sleep and awake and she waited for a hand colliding with her body, but it never came. She couldn't remember how long she'd laid there but after what seemed like a lifetime, she finally found a little strength to stand up.

And now she was ready to leave, to drive away and never look back. But with pain in her heart she knew, she would have to look back many times if she wanted to make this man pay for what he did to her.

Her eyes fell on the mirror in the corner, the mirror they'd bought together when Emily had moved in here. She'd said it was the only thing she wanted to change in the bedroom, add a mirror. She walked towards it, her eyes locking with the ones staring back at her. She didn't like the empty globes, the energy and strength that had once been showed in them was long gone. Her eyes slowly drift down as she lifts the hem of her shirt. She sees a hand, five fingers branded on her side. She doesn't want to feel anything and until now she hadn't, but seeing the evidence of violence provoked all pains to make it known. And she wanted to cry, she wanted to collapse on the ground and die. But she didn't, she didn't and she wouldn't cry. She wanted to be that strong woman again, the woman she'd once been.

She drops her shirt back down and turns around, carefully grabbing her bag and walking to the door with a solid step. And she doesn't cry, not once.

_**You are too beautiful,**_

_**your heart, it wants something more.**_

_**Those shades of blue on that face of yours**_

_**hide the smile that beats in your chest. **_

_AN:_ Hello all, thank you for reading and let me know what you thought about it. I put a lot of effort into this one, simply because this is a phenomenal song. It's Too Beautiful by He is we; I definitely recommend checking this song out. This will be a Two shot so the next chapter will be the final one, I still have to write it but it should be up by the end of this week (and if I suddenly find a burst of inspiration don't be shocked when it's up earlier!) This story will remain H/P **Friendship.**

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Emily Prentiss or any other content of Criminal Minds. I also, sadly, don't own the lyrics to the song Too Beautiful.

_EN: _Ok wow. That was just wow! Amazing job babe! I loved it! Great work, can't wait for the next chapter!


	2. Chapter Two

**AN;** some H/P loving if you read between the lines, some H/P friendship if you don't! When I read this afterwards I realized how often I changed POV and I found it kind of annoying. So every time there's a 'big' POV change, I've marked the first part of the sentence in bold. Enjoy!

Aaron Hotchner puts his book back on the coffee table as he hears someone ringing his doorbell. He'd just tucked Jack into his Superman bed, and for lack of anything interesting on TV he'd chosen a book to read. He'd never been much of a book person, but it seemed to help calm him down after his everyday hectic job.

He reaches the door and watches through the peephole, seeing only the top of a black haired head. He types in his security code and unlocks his door; there was only one black haired someone that would show up at his door around this time. "Prentiss," he breathes in shock as he sees the battered woman in front of him. "What happened to you?" His eyes widen as he steps aside to let her in, anger flaring deep inside of him. He places a hand on her back and leads her to his sofa. She looks so fragile on his large sofa and Hotch felt like kicking the shit out of the man that hurt her like this, if he'd just knew who that man was.

"Where's Jack?" Emily suddenly asks, obviously trying to change the subject. But he wasn't going to let this go that easily.

"He's already asleep; his cousins exhausted him today so he went out like a light the minute I tucked him on." He smiled softly, something he couldn't help doing when talking about his son. "Do you want some water, or anything else?" He watched her closely but she shook her head, still not meeting his eyes. Hotch sat down beside her and took her hand in his, "Emily" he deliberately uses her first name, trying to give her that little bit of comfort. "Tell me who did this to you."

**Emily finally looked into Hotch's brown orbs,** feeling relief warm her up inside. She wasn't going to get hurt anymore, everything would be just fine. She feels comfortable like this, with him. Ever since Foyet, or maybe even since New York, Hotch has become her closest friend. And she likes to think that he sees her as a close friend also. She chose to go to him, without really having to think about it. She needed his comfort. Because if she _had _to tell someone, and she had to or otherwise she'll go crazy, then Hotch would be her first choice.

She opens her mouth but closes it again, struggling to let the ugly truth out. And although she's afraid to, she still wants to; she wants someone else to know her story too. And as she tells him, her voice faltering often, she sees him struggle with her. And that's why he's her best friend.

**She finishes her story and Hotch pulls her into a tight hug**. He cursed at himself inside; he'd met Rick a couple of times, but even to a profiler he hadn't seemed like the abusive type. Clearly, he'd been wrong. He lets the hug go on a little longer, wanting to warm her a little more. "Come on," he whispers after a few minutes as he pulls back, "we need to get you to a hospital and we have to notify the police."

"No." Emily knows it has to happen, but she really just wants to wait till tomorrow before she throws herself onto that task. Things will change, but tonight she just wants to pretend everything is as it used to be. "We can do that tomorrow."

"Emily," Aaron takes a strand of Emily's disheveled hair and puts it behind her ear, "you could have internal bleedings; we need to get you checked out."

"I drove to your place, Aaron" she begs, "and I made it all the way up the stairs to your apartment, I'm fine. I can get checked out tomorrow."

Hotch wants to protest but the look in Emily's eyes stops him, he _knows _nothing he'll say will convince her to go. "Alright," he says, "but first thing tomorrow we will get you to the hospital and talk to the police. We will get this son of a bitch, Em" he adds.

"I know." She smiles, warmth spreading through her body. It's in time like these that she realizes just how much she loves her family.

"I'm sure you'll want to clean up, though." He locks his eyes with hers. "Use my bathroom, I still have those old sweats you love and you can wear one of my shirts."

Emily yawns and nods her thanks. "And" Hotch continues on, "you can take my bed, I'll just sleep on the couch."

Emily already starts to protest but Hotch puts his finger on her lips. "No buts, Em, I sleep just fine on the couch." His gaze didn't tolerate any objections.

Emily smiles and pulls him in for one last hug. "Thank you," she whispers, her voice weak with emotion, "for everything."

Hotch is comfortably sitting on his couch, once again trying to get into his book that he hasn't finished yet. And if he'll continue on this rate he'll have probably finished it by the time he retires. He's trying to concentrate on the book but also on Emily, making sure she'll get to bed alright. She should be asleep by now because he heard

Her move around in his bedroom about thirty minutes ago, and when he walked past the door to get to the bathroom he heard no sounds coming from inside.

Looking back into his book he feels a little more calmed; they'd have a lot going on tomorrow but tonight Emily would still have a little peace.

He was just getting into the story his book told when he heard a scream coming from his bedroom. He rushes of the couch, leaving his book abandoned on the floor, and makes his way to Emily. He opens the door and sees her trashing around and kicking off her blankets. For the first time since she came to him, Hotch sees the marks Rick has left on Emily; they're bad. He walks closer to the bed and takes Emily's hand, carefully stroking her cheek with his other. "Emily," he says, softy trying to push her awake. "It's Ok" he whispers as Emily, panic stricken, opens her eyes. "He can't hurt you anymore." He soothingly strokes his thumb over her palm as she seems to calm down a little. "Everything is going to be Ok."

_**toobeautiful**_

Eleven O'clock on a Friday night and Hotch is still sitting in his office pretending to do paperwork. While meanwhile he's given up on trying that a long time ago. He's watching Emily bend over her computer in the empty bullpen, and unlike Hotch she actually seems to be getting her work done. He's been catching himself watching his subordinate a lot lately, but last month has been very hectic; she'd been cleared from any major injuries, Rick has been arrested and in the past month Emily has had to tell her story at least a _dozen times_ to a _dozen different cops_. He really didn't want her back on the job already, but try stopping one Emily Prentiss when she sets her mind on something. He just likes to make sure she's taking all the events well. He'd do it for any single one of his teammates.

He's shaken out of his thoughts as he sees Emily stand up from her desk and walk up the stairs; she's making her way to his office. He watches her closely and feels a shiver run down his spine, something's wrong. Emily's posture is tense and she's got a worrisome look across her face.

"Come in," he says as she knocks on his office door. She slowly opens it, as if doubting her decision to _come in. _"Prentiss?" Hotch asks "is everything alright?"

Emily tries her best to smile, but with the way she's been feeling that's a very hard challenge. "Are you busy?"

Hotch shakes his head, paperwork can wait 'till tomorrow. He motions for her to sit down in the chair across from his desk, "Did something happen?"

**Emily bit her lip, still doubting if she could really tell him**, if she could really worry him with her problems. But he'd been so supportive this past month, and she actually felt happy when she was with him. She could trust him. "Rick and I were together for a long time" she finally sighs.

"**Yes," Hotch feels confused, "you were." **What was she saying with this? Was she considering going back to him? No, there was no way she would do that; she was too strong for a downright stupid act like that. "What's going on _Emily_?"

**She has to tell him now, or otherwise she won't ever tell him.** If she'll wait too long she'll lose all of her nerves. God, this was difficult. "Well…" She can feel her lip starting to bleed; she really should stop biting so hard. It was now or never,

"_I'm pregnant."_

**AN;** Don't kill me! This two shot is completed, but I might make a sequel. Although, as most of you know, my inspiration is a weird thing. I'll have an idea for a sequel and within days I'm stuck. So it's all up to the muse! Tell me what you think; I'd really love to hear from you all!

**EN:** That was an amazing job babe! Great writing skills, so much better than someone else I know! Great story! Loved it! Review please peeps!


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